Windsor Chair course Day 3

Then we knuckle down to the body of chair making, the quantity of my photos diminish along with my memory of the events of that day. To do a 10 day course, it becomes a reality
that there is no other reality except for making chairs. Nothing else that used to happen in life seemed to matter any more.

We did have a go at the steam box. As the Windsor chair is a double bowed one, we had to bend two pieces of timber. With our bare hands. Or rather Howard’s bare hands.

Strange distracting thoughts float observing the steam box. Could you attach something so that you could cook with the excess vapours at the same time? Could you modify it in such a way to have a sauna? Could you use the dripping hot water for a cuppa? Of course all of the answers were no. Except maybe the sauna.

Bending is as nerve racking as gluing up. The sheer moments of blind terror where everything and everyone has to be in place and ready to tap, pull, insert, hold down, and drink cups of tea. Two curvy sticks (and a lot of beer) later…